Individual Entry

Corpse Bride - Warner finally hits a home run

My review copy of the recently released HD DVD of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride arrived today. You can read my overall opinions of it in the post I made when I rented the standard definition DVD back in February, and they haven’t changed all that much (although I did find myself appreciating the art direction slightly more this time round), but of all the various blockbuster releases that I was offered by DVD Times, it struck me as being one of the more interesting.

Anyway, I’ve been a little critical of Warner’s HD DVDs in the past. Million Dollar Baby and Constantine were both edge enhanced and slightly noise reduced, while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looked noticeably diffuse (a flaw also affecting the HD broadcast master) and suffered from a few instances of compression artefacts, so I was a little apprehensive about Corpse Bride. Luckily, the results are considerably better than I was expecting - indeed, this is one of the best HD DVDs I’ve seen so far, beaten only by the majestic Serenity and the flawless Unleashed in terms of visual pizzazz. Edge enhancement is non-existent, contrast is spot-on, colours (in the saturated “Land of the Dead” sequences) are a joy to behold. This is so close to being a perfect transfer, and is marred only by a few mild instances of digital banding in the colours in the background. I feel slightly bad about knocking a mark off the score for these minor problems, but, with my high definition reviews, I want a 10/10-rated transfer to really mean absolute perfection.

Oh yeah, and I pre-ordered the HD DVD of Wolf Creek from DVD Pacific. It’s due out on December 5th.